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"And I thought I was the one putting up walls," Malcolm said.
Looking thoughtful, Derrick rested an arm on the back of the sofa and stroked Malcolm's hair and the back of his neck. With a wine glass in his other hand, Derrick spoke in a quiet voice. "I was really young when I decided not to be myself, to just push ahead, to care only about success and money. Kyle couldn't sway me, no one else could except you. And Paula. Thank you," Derrick told him and kissed him.
Chapter 22
Early Sunday morning, Malcolm woke up in Derrick's arms. He didn't want to move, so he went right back to sleep again.
By the time he woke up for a second time, Derrick was gone from his bed and Malcolm could hear his deep voice and Paula's chirping one. They were talking about making waffles.
Getting up, he found them in the living room. While saying good morning to them, he saw that they had a cookbook open between them. They were looking at a waffle recipe.
Malcolm started a pot of coffee, and Paula told him, "We're gonna make waffles, Uncle Malcolm."
"Are you?" He was skeptical. "Does either one of you know how to make waffles?"
Paula picked up the cookbook with an 'Oof' and brought it over to him, holding it open. "It says how in here," she said.
"Aha," Malcolm said.
Derrick came over and picked up Paula and her cookbook and sat her on the kitchen counter. "We don't know how, but we can learn," he told Malcolm. "Maybe you could teach us?"
"Yes!" Paula said.
Malcolm smiled at their eagerness. "OK, I'll teach you."
It turned out that teaching them involved doing all the work himself and not letting them mess up what he was doing. After not being allowed to touch anything, Derrick pointed out to Malcolm, "You're not a hands on kind of teacher."
With a sigh, Malcolm relented. "OK. I'll let you fry some bacon. Don't make me regretted it."
Malcolm already gave Paula a job. She inspected the waffles after they came out of the waffle maker. "It has a hole," she said. Most of them did because Malcolm didn't want to put too much batter and have it spill so he put too little and there were gaps.Putting too little was less messy. "Another hole, Uncle Malcolm," she said and pouted at him. Maybe he shouldn't have given her that job.
Derrick was happy to fry the bacon and he did a good job. Malcolm kissed his cheek and told him, "You might have talent."
They ate breakfast and Paula told them, "You made good waffles and good 'bacons'."
After breakfast, Malcolm realized that they didn't take any pics of the Valentine's decorations. They corrected that oversight and posed in front of all of them as a trio.
Paula had gone to draw some hearts and Malcolm was checking through the pictures. He took one more of Derrick looking up at a cluster of heart shaped balloons. "My place is going to feel so bare after this."
"Get a thousand heart shaped balloons to fill the place, problem solved," Malcolm said.
"It's not the decorations," Derrick said and came over to put his hands on Malcolm's waist. "My place feels lonely after I spend time with you and Paula."
"Move in with us," Malcolm invited him teasingly knowing he would never want to live in such a small apartment.
But Derrick turned serious and said, "Why don't you and Paula move in with me, make my house less lonely."
Malcolm was stunned. He was only kidding with his invitation, but Derrick sounded like he meant it. "Isn't it too soon for that?" Malcolm asked in a halting voice.
Derrick smiled. "I guess so," he said, but now he looked sad and Malcolm felt sad.
The look in Derrick's eyes was almost all it took for him to say yes. But this was a spur of the moment invite. It wasn't real. Malcolm couldn't move in with him if Derrick was only asking him on an impulse and hadn't thought it through.Especially when he had to consider Paula and giving her a stable environment. But damn he wanted to say yes.
"A hot, rich guy asked you to move in with him and you're talking to me instead of packing," Candy said when he told her about it over the phone.
"I'm actually getting ready. Derrick is taking us to a charity picnic. It's at some ritzy estate and it's sort of like an egg hunt except kids get to find hearts instead of eggs, and rich people donate money to charity. I don't know," he said while fussing with his hair in the bathroom mirror.
"You're all stressed. I can hear it in your voice. And that's because you're not moving in with your rich boss right now," she told him.
